1. NABC tool Can be used to set up your ICON pitch

2. Present your project using the NABC framework Need – Approach – Benefit – Competition An important client or market need addressed by a unique approach with compelling benefits when compared against the competition or alternatives

3. Need What are our client's needs? A need should relate to an important and specific client or market opportunity, with market size and end customers clearly stated. The market should be large enough to merit the necessary investment and development time. Example – Video On Demand system: Movie rental is a 500 Mio Euro business. The part people dislike is to return tapes and late fees.

4. Approach What is our compelling solution and unique advantage to the specific client need? As the approach develops through iterations, it becomes a full proposal or business plan, which can include market positioning, cost, staffing, partnering, deliverables, a timetable and intellectual property (IP) protection. Example: We will provide Video On Demand via the cable with access to all titles of IMDB. The system uses existing channels and hardware. Customers need no new investments and pay the same price for a movie as in the rental shop.

5. Benefits What are the client benefits of our approach? Each approach to a client's need results in unique client benefits, such as low cost, high performance or quick response (better, faster, cheaper). Success requires that the benefits be quantitative and substantially better - not just different. Why must we win? Example: End-user: no need to return movies; no more late fees. Same functions as with a DVD player: fast forward, trailers,..etc. Customer: Higher revenue per movie with higher margin; 20% market share expected.

6. Competition / Alternatives Why are our benefits significantly better than the competition? Everyone has alternatives. We must be able to tell our client or partner why our solution represents the best value. To do this, we must clearly understand our competition and our client's alternatives. We must be able to clearly state why our approach is substantially better than that of the competition. Our answer should be short and memorable. Example Competition: we have patented the distribution and VCR like features for VOD. Alternatives: on-line rentals have higher handling costs (0.75 Euro per movie). Sending the tape back is as inconvenient as returning it.